Here’s an interesting photo from Matthew Wahl’s Flickr showing the glow from fluorescent tubes as a direct result of the electromagnetic field surrounding overhead power lines. The fluorescent tubes are not plugged in to any power source.

A fluorescent tube glows when an electrical voltage is set up across it. The electric field set up inside the tube excites atoms of mercury gas, making them emit ultraviolet light. This invisible light strikes the phosphor coating on the glass tube, making it glow. Because powerlines are typically 400,000 volts, and Earth is at an electrical potential voltage of zero volts, pylons create electric fields between the cables they carry and the ground.
Box denies that he aimed to draw attention to the potential dangers of powerlines, â€˜For me, it was just the amazement of taking something thatâ€™s invisible and making it visible,â€™ he says. â€˜When it worked, I thought: â€˜This is amazing.â€™â€™

Keep in mind that the bulbs do not necessarily glow that bright on their own. Many of the images taken of bulbs in these scenarios are long exposures. However, the bulbs do glow enough to see with the naked eye, so the awe in seeing this occurrence will surely still be there if you were to try this for yourself.

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It’s like the movie ‘The Prestige’ because the character played by Davie Bowie in that movie was Nikolai Tesla, the guy who discovered this years ago. Like way back in the 30′s or something. Richard Box, an artist-in-residence at Bristol University’s physics department, was NOT one of the first people to discover the phenomenon. Tesla was alive from 1856 to 1943. Many thought he was either an alien who fell to earth or had some kind of secret alien info. There are probably tons of things that he discovered that have been suppressed… not to mention all the stuff that Edison stole from him and claimed to invent himself.

umm thats because the conductor on the end of the tube is not touching the ground. it has to be a circuit, by sticking one end in the ground you are making the magnetic field go through the upper conductor through the tube out the bottom conductor and into the ground, if it doesnt stick in the ground it cannot light, pointing this out would be stating the obvious and expected results.

Actually, it has to do with the orientation of the EM field and its interaction with the ground. There’s no need for the metal conductor to come in contact with the Earth in this case since the field propagates through space. Even if a person held the bulb above his head it would still glow. You see this a lot when people are playing with Tesla coils.

You’re right Rich. In this case, I think it’s because the ground was moist. And because it’s not as close to the power lines. Interestingly enough, When you grab the tube in the middle (and even hold it up over your head), it glows brightest by your hand.

I’m most stunned by the fact nobody has noticed this is an ‘overlay’… Check the guy in the picture… so electromagnetic energy causes you to become semi-transparent… you can see the background through him… follow the treeline if that helps..

“Many of the images taken of bulbs in these scenarios are long exposures. ” Walk into the scene – walk out of the scene, both you and the background is captured in the picture (double exposure). This is not an overlay.

You can do this with a 5 – 10 watt transmitter and a small tube. Hold the tube next to the antenna and have someone key-up the mic. I’ve done this with the old CB radios and a black light tube. New meaning to cool light. The EM radiation is probably not too good for you though. I’ve also heard loud static come from a car radio when it was turned off while I drove by a large high-powered radar site. I try to avoid those places.

“”I’m most stunned by the fact nobody has noticed this is an ‘overlay’… Check the guy in the picture… so electromagnetic energy causes you to become semi-transparent… you can see the background through him… follow the treeline if that helps..””

The guy says in the post that the pictures are taken with a long exposure. Try again.

I took the picture at the top. The subject walked out of the frame halfway through the 30 second exposure to get that effect. I’m stunned you don’t have power lines, a fluorescent, and 10 minutes to try it yourself. Then again, I didn’t believe it until I tried it.

Same thing happened on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier when someone was carrying bulbs in front of aircraft when the technician “accidentally” activated the radar. This was before the days of safety switching that prevented from happening when the plane wasn’t actually flying.

This isn’t new, and the guy from Bristol didn’t “discover” it. This has been known for a long time. Around 1983 I went to the Museum of Science(?) in Denver, Colorado, and they handed out flourescent tubes to the audience during a demonstration of a Tesla coil. They said the same thing would happen under power lines, so when we got back home, of course we had to try it. So I can guarantee this was known at least 25 years ago.

Correct. Tesla “discovered” it. My engineering teacher showed me this trick in 1988. I dont think this kid was alive then. Before youtube and cell phones we said things like “wouldn’t it be cool to get a thousand lights out here?”, but no one felt compelled to actually do it. There was no forum for the attention starved. All that said, I enjoyed the pictures, and there’s nothing wrong with passing on knowledge. Maybe some other kid will think of something useful to do with it.

The one laying on the ground doesn’t glow because both of its ends are at the same potential (same distance from the power line). The ones standing vertical experience a greater potential at the part of the bulb closest to the power lines (and are grounded where they touch the ground.)

As for him being translucent, they stated that it’s a time-lapse photo…maybe he started the camera and then ran into position causing a transparent effect.

This is old stuff – almost 100 years old. Nikola Tesla was running *incandescent* lights from high-voltage fields. Fluorescents are much easier to illuminate – require a much less intense field to get the effect.

I don’t know what those guys in Bristol were up to, but they certainly didn’t “discover” this effect.

it makes sense, in that, as part of our electro-magnetic field, (as one would surmise the electrons are ‘rushing’ upward’ to meet the poles to which they are attracted naturally) they would receive their charges and only as they can confrontationally output it in their electronic sources….

I have tried this at my home – major overhead power lines border my property. Nothing I tried produced any sort of glow. Might not be a bad thing, really, but I could not get it to work. My neighbors were probably wondering what in heck that odd man was doing in the field at night wandering around with light bulbs!

Technically, the effect Tesla demonstrated (like in The Prestige) wasn’t the same thing, even though this is commonly shown with Tesla coils. Tesla electrified the actual ground around his laboratory, so that sticking a lightbulb in the ground was essentially the same as screwing it into a socket. The effect shown in the article wouldn’t work with typical lightbulbs because they don’t have the same florescent coating on the inside, as they work by heating a tungsten resistor to the point where it becomes white hot.

As other people have said, look up the works of Nicola Tesla for more information. Some of his work is fascinating, including the idea of long range wireless energy and electricity transport using the earth itself as a conductor.

Yeah, thanks for the no big deal internet science thing. Almost a good Hoaxbusters.com item. My science class in 1966 (nineteen SIXTY SIX) did this experiment in high school. We had power lines running over the track field. We had a great science teacher butwe had no internet, so we could not pretend we were smart as the owners of Doobybrain say they are. We got the same result they did. Oooh! What a “current” discovery (get it..?). The only thing truth about this segment of Doobybrain is the doobie part. They must’ve smoke a few this time. Best regards, Orenthal-NuclearGlowB.S.113M

No way did he ‘discover’ this phenomenon. It’s been known about for decades. Back in the late 70s I wrote a newspaper article about a trailer park which was right under power lines. The residents all lit their homes for free with tubes and covered them over when they wanted the lights out.

Well, those clouds don’t look like “long exposure” clouds. Clouds are rarely motionless, so they show blurring in a long exposure. And if that person walked into the frame and then out again, there would be some evidence of his entry and exit. Unless, of course, “long exposure” allows x-ray vision. LOL

I took the first photo (30 second exposure). It wasn’t photoshopped, except to make the colors and contrast better (and to get rid of a zit). My friend stood in the frame then he left halfway through exposure. The slower the exposure the less evidence of something moving through the frame (this is nothing new I can assure you). As for the clouds, there probably is a little movement or blur, but it wasn’t a windy day either.

I’ve never seen it done But I do know of Tesla.
As was pointed out. Quite a lot was known and discussed, in the 50′s and 60′s, reguarding Tesla’s researches in High freq. and magnetic fields. Such a display is possible I suppose and may be the cause of the mild electric shocks I received while viewing planets through a high powered telescope which was mounted nearly under a run of high tension lines. 1962, Lakewood. calif.
Flatly stating that Tesla was some sort of Kook, as was done on this forum recently, really bothers me quite a lot.
I’ve been a bit surprised to see that the children of the 80′s and 90′s grew up to believe this.
Winding a coil specificly to light a floresent was information easily found in the 60′s in widely published Boys hobby publications.
If you really think Tesla is some sort of Kook then I advise you to disreguard the fringe alien Tesla web sites and read what Tesla wrote about his own researches.
Follow the example of a bunch of 14 yr. old boys in the 60′s, wind a coil for yourself and stick a floresent into the field….

They knew this stuff back in 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico. My mother was glowing some tubes underneath some powerlines when that UFO hit the ground. The government still will not admit they actually have an alien in the basement of the Smithstonian – and that he is actually still alive! One day all of this will come out and everyone will know of the great UFO coverup. Meantime, these pictures were shopped – I have seen a few shopped pictures in my day, and these are really poorly completed. For one thing, if the tubes were really glowing from EMF’s, there would be a rainbow hue around each tube – I know this because I called my momma last night as asked her – and that is one of the few things she remembers from 1947.

The magnetic field is induced from the current in the wire. Using this field to generate a current does remove power from the line. The energy in those bulbs doesn’t come out of nowhere. You can do the same thing on a larger scale to steal electricity from power lines, you don’t ever have to touch the power line. You set up a coil of wire close to the line and a current will be induced in the coil. Definitely theft, cool theft, but theft none the less.

If you don’t know anything about photography or Photoshop please just keep your stupid and ignorant remarks to yourself.
Its funny how these kind of posts either get people who know what they are talking about or complete idiots… there is nothing in between anymore.

It is obviously a long exposure and the subject is moving his body and waving his arm(s). If someone wanted to ‘fake’ this photo they wouldn’t need to do a double exposure. Just doing a double exposure would take more time and effort than just ‘Photoshopping’ it in the first place.

If you don’t like the post don’t take the time to read it and get lost!

Thank god we have you here to tell us what to say think and do! Otherwise I may have had to come to my own conclusions, which may well have caused your eminence undo offense by being very different from your own, and gone as far as to actually be forced to sum up my own thoughts in a succinct way!

Where have you been? There is so much you need to tend to now that you’re here!

huh, my parents live in a house right under some of those high-power lines, and in the garage they have a fluorescent light just like this… I noticed when I was young that it still gave some light at night when it was turned off, interesting to finally see the link between those cables and the light

All, please don’t waste time admiring this !! its FAKE !! the reason is the following -
The Frequency of Transmitting AC on those overheads is low (50-60Hz) even though the voltage is high, the radiation is not powerful enough to glow Fluorescent lights.

I know its been a while since this was posted, but you are completely wrong DALLAS DOC. you shouldnt judge things so quickly. i did this experiment myself tonight and the bulbs did glow. okay, so it wasnt incredibly bright, but it was still enough to know that something was happening. so next time, before you decide to dash what could be a fun project for someone, you should take the time to actually try it instead of relying on your “basic EM theory”.

For someone who knows EM theory…did you not think about conservation of energy? They teach that in elementary school science class. The reason new wireless technology (cell phones, cordless land line phones, wifi etc…) can span such a large distance with such a short antenna (small) is because the frequency is so high (large). On the other hand…if the frequency is low as you said…50-60Hz(small), and the antenna is long (those wires span for miles…large) the radiation will still be able to span quite a distance.

…and another fun fact: Put a regular (not power saving) light bulb in a clear drinking glass and put enough water in the class to cover the metal part. Then put the glass and lightbulb in the microwave for a few seconds. It will light up. Just be sure the metal part is covered so you don’t hurt your microwave!

From someone who has ACTUALLY studied EM field theory, this is possible. The frequency of the power lines is not important (as long as it’s over 10 Hz or so.) What matters is the ELECTRIC FIELD strength, which even at a distance is quite significant for HV transmission lines. It is the quasistatic electric field, not the combined EM radiation, that makes this work.

Hey Clown go try it. I’ll bet the farm its real. I’m a power lineman and I have seen all sorts of induction (electrostatic and electromagnetic) including the one in question. If your looking for a good documentry on the subject check out “Shock and awe: the history of electricity” (it clearly shows induction lighting).

Agreed. He just “rediscovered” someone else’s discovery.
Louise B. Young noticed this in 1973, and wrote the book Power Over People — about the electrical industry. I have a photo of her standing under a power line holding a fluorescent light bulb, which is glowing.

Fluorescent lighting did not exist when Tesla was alive. If you want to attribute the knowledge of electromagnetic fields carrying energy to someone, give it to Maxwell, who described the behavior in mathematical terms.

The first patent for the florescent bulb was in 1901. Tesla died in 1943. The International System of Units unit measuring magnetic field B (also referred to as the magnetic flux density and magnetic induction), the tesla, was named in his honor (at the Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures, Paris, 1960), as well as the Tesla effect of wireless energy transfer to wirelessly power electronic devices (which Tesla demonstrated on a low scale with incandescent light bulbs as early as 1893 and aspired to use for the intercontinental transmission of industrial power levels in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project).

This is low level stuff. You can lay out wires on the ground under the High Power lines and run some appliances. They used to bust hippies for this in Siskiyou County for doing just that in the late sixties and seventies.

Anyone who thinks they discovered this phenomenon is not a Physicist. This was discovered in 1831 by Faraday under the physical laws governing electricity and magnetism. It’s how transformers work – flowing electricity produces a magnetic field which causes electricity to flow elsewhere without physical contact. Physics 101.

I tried this down the road from my house. I had two identical fluro-tubes. The first time it didn’t do anything at all. So I went back, soldered a large piece of copper tube to the pins at one end of the tube. I then dug a small hole and buried one end in the ground…..

It kinda worked. It lit up tiny bit at both ends. I had a piece of micro-fibre cloth with me and I rubbed the tube a few times. It glowed brighter with the cloth than the powerlines alone.

I think the glow would depend on the density of the powerlines. Ours had 10-12 lines. And the distance from the lines to the ground.

Perfect conditions in pitch black, I think you could dimly light the whole tube.

To all of you who think this isn’t possible, perhaps you need to study Gauss’s Law and learn a little about E-fileds. High electric currents produce strong fields that are measurable. I would not doubt that these pictures are too far from the truth.

This is not new … this was not just discovered… They also just came out with an article about a russian kid ‘discovering’ this. These seem like ‘discoveries’ because the science end of this was SQUASHED for civilian use. The tech is only military now or idustrial. Reason being, if applied to near any civilian use energy would be impossible to charge for, and the electric companies wouldn’t profit. Get an education, study tesla, then talk.